REBECCA STEVENSON: WIFE, MOTHER, EMPLOYEE,...AND STUDENT?

Well, I have decided to go back to school. I know, very scary. I guess I am just asking for major stress and an early heart-attack or something, but I am going to give it a try.


The reason for this major move in my life is because I started looking at my life down the road and realized that selling insurance just doesn't do it for me. Especially for the long run. I mean, don't get me wrong. I love my boss, my co-worker Jenny, and the hours are fine and I get paid pretty well. When I start listing all the things I like about my job, it seems ridiculous to even consider going through the time, expense, and stress of going back to school.


But I am getting bored. Insurance is not exciting, and I don't like trying to sell it to people. Every year we have to meet certain numbers or my boss loses lots of money. I don't like that. I hate starting over every year knowing that I need to get X amount of life insurance policies. That will never go away. (Don't get me wrong...I believe people need life insurance, I just don't like being the salesperson for it!) Also, my boss is a small business owner so he can't give me any benefits. If he retired right now, I would not want to work in insurance anymore, so I don't have a lot of flexibility.


That is why I started looking at nursing. It is a well-paying, fulfilling career with so much flexibility and potential for growth. I can train for it at my local community college and it won't actually cost that much money for school. Sounds good to me. So today is my first official day back to school. I am taking one online class to get my brain going again. I still need a few classes before I can apply for nursing school because my Bachelor's degree has nothing to do with science so I need all my science prerequisites. I hope to actually be able to enter nursing school in about a year and a half, when Isaac starts kindergarten full time.

Please wish me well in my new endeavor...I will need everyone's prayers and good wishes! I will keep you updated!

LIFE AT OUR HOUSE

You know, this picture about sums it up. Baby doll with a sword. There you go. My son actually positioned his sister's doll like this....

You have competition, Chucky!

FOOTBALL!! WOW!!!!!

Hi!! from Jarod.

Today, I am going to talk about this whole KU-MU football Border War (Armegeddon at Arrowhead) concoction in perfect hindsight. For all you KU alumni (CCers) who are spread out across the globe and have been wondering what the heck happened this year with the football team since you all went elsewhere, here's my take on it.
MU did what they were expected to do. KU actually did, too. Although MU's schedule was slightly tougher, neither team played a schedule worthy of a top-10 team BCS team. KU's schedule would be considered tough for a Div.-2 school. Their toughest opponent prior to MU was Texas A&M and Colorado, and did either of them win seven games this year? MU did beat Illinois, but that was the first game of the season. I think half the teams in the Big-12 would've won that game, and NOBODY thought Illinois would be the one to dethrone #1 Ohio St. Then they beat Ole Miss. and lost to Oklahoma, followed by a win against Texas Tech. Those were their tough games. Big deal. They should go 11-1; the same for KU.
KU and MU got to their high rankings in a fashion that would be analogous to a company janitor rising to the position of company CEO in a year's time only because every other employee ahead of the janitor kept getting fired or quit. Every team ahead of KU and MU kept losing.
Missouri is good, but I think they'd get their JOCKSTRAPS handed to them if they played a PAC-10 champ this year. The reason they beat KU at Arrowhead is because KU had a really bad case of nerves. You could see it in their faces the whole first half. Suddenly, with #1 LSU going down, this was it: the janitor was being promoted to CEO; 'Do we really deserve this?' Arrowhead, with 80,000 college fans, might be the loudest sports venue in America. It was too much at first, too electric, so they screwed up early. But once they got used to it and settled in, Missouri couldn't stop them. Four consecutive TD drives in the last 20 minutes. If KU were given an extra two minutes, MU fans might have been calling for coach Gary Pinkle's job again. Face it, MU fans: KU misses two FG's, throws two interceptions, falls behind 21-0 and then 28-7, and KU still had a chance to win at the end? MU will either get beat by Oklahoma or get whooped by their BCS opponent.
It will be interesting to see how both teams respond to newfound success next year. Missouri faces three potentially tough games: Illinois, Texas, and KU. That's it. Other than that, they get to sit in the recliner against Southeast Missouri, Buffalo U., Nevada, Baylor.......they should go undefeated. KU, on the other hand will get plenty of battle scars next year: at South Florida, at Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech at home, then MU.

(rebecca wanted me to apologize for the length of this entry. i'm very passionate about football. guy, you know.)

Thanksgiving...fun, and bloating!!!

Here is a sampling of the kids...the four boys in the middle were all born within 6 months of each other! Yowza! :)

My gorgeous cousins Julia and Carolie! Someone actually asked us if we were triplets when we were kids...
The fam! We took about 100 pictures trying to get one with everyone smiling and looking at the camera. Didn't happen.
Brother Dave with his wife, Angie. David kept making stupid faces and Angie almost killed him...she's pretty tough to have put up with him for 12 years!
Timmy Tim with wife Carmen. Tim and Carmen are becoming old pros at this marriage stuff now...they celebrated their 1 year anniversary earlier this year!

The food was delicious...thanks so much to mom and everyone who contributed to the meal. The Erickson/Bass family sure can pack it away, can't we? :) Love you all!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!

Well, my baby girl is turning 2 in just a few days. It is a little sad, really. I think about my baby walking around, talking, and running around with the big kids. She doesn't act like a baby at all. In many ways, that is good. I obviously want to see her mature and learn new things. I don't really want her to remain a baby. But, I think every mother knows what I am talking about when I say that sometimes, you just get that ache to hold a baby, or maybe throw caution to the wind and see if you can get pregnant one more time. Realistically, I don't want to have any more children. They are expensive and Jarod and I want to retire before we are 90. But oh, if I were rich and had a nanny... I guess it won't do me any good to think about all the "what ifs" I should just enjoy what I have...which is a wonderful husband and 2 healthy, beautiful children!

Now, totally changing direction...we actually had Elizabeth's birthday party a couple of weeks ago since her birthday is right around Thanksgiving. I have included some pictures from her party...enjoy!

HALLOWEEN!!!! FINALLY!!!

Well, Isaac has been asking for about the past 3 months when Halloween was going to get here.

Well, it came. And so did the CANDY!!!! Every house we went to loaded the kids up with more candy than we could eat in 10 lifetimes. Apparently, trick-or-treating is getting less and less popular with the younger parents, who favor safe church or school parties. But not Jarod and I! No siree bob...we prefer good ol' fashioned trick-or-treating: walking around poorly lit streets in the chilly night, knocking on strangers doors and asking for candy, and of course the fun of checking for razor blades and/or drug-laced candy. I wouldn't trade it for the world! But enough about me...let's talk about the kids!!!

You would have thought that dressing up like a dinosaur is the equivalent of winning the lottery or something. Isaac loved that silly costume! In fact, he wore it almost every day for at least an hour or two for about 2 months leading up to Halloween. He wanted to sleep in it and wear it to Wal-Mart and stuff. Looking back, I should have let him wear it to Wal-Mart...I mean, who cares? :) My mom did take Elizabeth shopping at Kohl's on Halloween in her Ladybug costume and everyone loved her! I guess Elizabeth kept saying "hi" to people and pointing to herself saying "big bug" and laughing at herself. She was like a big drunk-acting ladybug.

So, to sum it up, my kids loved Halloween and Jarod and I had lots of fun, too. Yeah! :)

"YES, I AM OLD." HIGHLIGHTS FROM MY 10 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

As you may have guessed from title, I recently attended my 10 year high school reunion. And yes, I am now officially "old." My co-worker Jenny always makes fun of me because I usually seem to put myself in some sort of age category close to high school or something. I have a very hard time accepting the fact that every year that goes by, I get farther and farther from being cool. Earlier this year, I saw a guy I went to high school with and remarked that he was looking "very old, like around 30 or something" to which my co-worker (and very good friend) Jenny remarked with a wicked grin, "yeah, you mean like you?" Hmm...good point. So I am accepting the fact that I am growing older. Married? check. Kids? check. Mortgage? check. Likes to stay at home in sweatpants? check. Takes multiple herbal supplements for regularity and lower cholesterol? check. Well, that does it. I fulfill all requirements to be listed as old.

But, here is the good news....going to my reunion made me feel young again! I actually really enjoyed myself! Seeing pictures of myself from high school and having people remind me of the many stupid things I did back then was hilarious and exhilirating all at the same time! Everyone, including myself, seemed to be a little nicer, a little easier to talk to, and a heck of a lot more mature. I just want to say to everyone at the reunion: I really enjoyed seeing you and thanks for a great night!

By the way, I forgot to bring my camera to the reunion...so the picture of Jarod and I is actually from the night of the reunion, it was just before we went out, but since there aren't any pictures of Jarod and I in this blog...I decided to throw it in!